Frankenstein Essay

1638 words - 7 pages

Lizy Bodokia
ENG3U1-03
Ms. Mondrow
04-05-13

Idea of a “True” Monster

For many centuries the concept of judgment has always been present. First impressions have always been based on appearances, rather than the judgment of the person’s actions. However, judging a person only by his or her appearance may not necessarily help to find out what the person makes of him or herself. Looks are deceiving and judging based on physical imperfections will not tell you who the real monster is. With judgment comes pity, a universal human characteristic that determines a person in a unstable situation looking for help. Analyzing an individuals isolation from society, having parents with poor ...view middle of the document...

(120) Shelley is using her novel to ask her readers who the real monster is, Frankenstein or the Creature. She elaborates on this idea by talking about who is more human. Frankenstein self inflicted the isolation upon himself while the Creature wants more by contributing to society. Shelley shows this contribution by having the Creature say, “I went into the woods, and collected my own food and fuel for the cottage. When, I returned as often as it was necessary, I cleared their path for the snow”. (114)This way Shelley is able to weave into her novel one of the ideas of her father, William Godwin, who asserted that Man is a social animal. She uses the motif of Isolation to show how the Creature’s life has been affected. Clearly, Frankensteins actions results in the death of his brother, William, his family friend Justine, and his best friend Henry. Shelley uses character development when Frankenstein acknowledges the guilt he feels for the deaths when he says, “Have my murderous machinations deprived you also, my dearest Henry, of life? Two I have already destroyed; other victims await their destiny...”(176)Frankenstein’s guilt of creating a “murderous” monstrosity drove him to confess to being responsible for the death of his family and friends. Shelley is clearly showing how being isolated affects a person as well as those around him.
Frankenstein is too busy being isolated, making him a bad parent to the Creature. Mary Shelley explores the dire consequences of poor parenting. While some children have a happy childhood and loving parents, others may have to suffer from loneliness, allowing them to make reckless and foolish decisions, because of parental absence. Shelley reveals the importance of a happy functional family through the main character, Victor Frankenstein. Shelley uses personification when Frankenstein talks about his happy childhood and parents,
” No human being could have passed a happier childhood than myself. My parents were possessed by the very spirit of kindness and indulgence. We felt that they were not the tyrants to rule our lot according to their caprice, but the agents and creators of all the many delights which we enjoyed. When I mingled with other families, I distinctly discerned how peculiarly fortunate my lot was, and gratitude assisted the development of filial love”. (37)
Mary Shelley uses personification to intensify the feeling he expresses towards his parents and to share Frankenstein’s memories with our own, believing that a happy childhood Frankenstein had, will make him a good parent in the future. However, Frankensteins childhood did not seem to be enough for him to become an acceptable parent to his creature. Frankenstein not moving up to his responsibilities as a parent brings confusion and struggle to the Creature. Shelley has the Creature exclaim his confusion of who he is by saying, “ I was still cold, when under one of the trees I found a huge cloak, with which I covered myself, and sat down upon...

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